The Latest: House will vote on bill forcing the release of Epstein files

The House will vote Tuesday afternoon on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.

When a small bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills see the House floor, it appeared a longshot effort — especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.” But both Trump and Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote.

Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the bill and even said he will sign it if it passes the Senate. His blessing ensures an overwhelming vote to pass the vote in the House, putting further pressure on the Senate to take it up.

Tuesday’s vote could be a pivotal moment for long-held demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein, a well-connected financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.

The Latest:

Trump says he hasn’t spoken yet with Venezuela’s Maduro

Asked if they’d spoken, Trump said, “No. He wants to talk. Yeah, I’m open to talking. I talk to everybody.”

Trump first said on Sunday that that U.S. “may be having some discussions” with President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.

The comments were a potential diplomatic avenue as the U.S. continues to build up is military presence off the South American country’s coast.

Former attorney general Eric Holder calls Texas ruling ‘major victory’

Holder, who heads up the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, in a statement called the ruling overturning Texas’ new maps “a major victory for Texans, particularly Texans of color.”

Holder, who served in President Barack Obama’s administration, warned that it should “also serve as a warning to anti-democracy politicians” pursuing “mid-decade gerrymanders” in other states.

Holder has been outspoken about the Texas redistricting efforts, hosting Obama earlier this year for a fundraiser benefiting his organization.

Tennessee GOP nominee in special US House race follows new Trump position on Epstein vote

Republican Matt Van Epps has said he’s with President Trump 100% as he runs with Trump’s endorsement in a Dec. 2 special election for Congress in Tennessee. He’s now following Trump’s changed stance favoring the House vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Van Epps voiced support for the House vote in a statement Tuesday.

Previously, he said he supported Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan for the Oversight Committee to investigate the Epstein files, including through subpoena power, and then release the results “for full transparency.” The oversight investigation has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein’s estate.

“As I’ve said from the beginning, I support full transparency — I would vote to release the Epstein files, no hesitation,” Van Epps said Tuesday.

Van Epps is a military veteran and former state general services commissioner. In the 7th Congressional District race, he faces Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn, who has criticized Van Epps’ stance on the Epstein files.

Trump appointee wrote opinion nixing GOP-backed Texas House map

A judge appointed to the federal bench by Trump is the one who authored Tuesday’s ruling blocking the new U.S. House map for Texas that the president had backed.

A three-judge panel issued Tuesday’s ruling, but it was delivered by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, nominated to the bench by Trump during his first term. The former Texas Supreme Court justice was joined in the opinion by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama, an Obama appointee.

The lone dissent in the 2-1 decision came from U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee.

Republican lawmaker says he’s embarrassed for his party on Epstein bill

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., says he’s embarrassed for his own political party as the House debates a bill Tuesday afternoon requiring the Justice Department to release records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Massie says that he and three Republican colleagues – Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert – “have had to drag our party to this floor today to even vote on this.”

Massie says the three women have been threatened and intimidated, “and not by the far left. They have been threatened by people in our own party.”

The four Republicans joined with Democrats in signing onto a discharge petition that forces a vote on the release of the records.

Trump says it’s a ‘perfect night’ to have Saudi dinner in the grand ballroom he wants to build

About 120 people are expected for dinner in the East Room, which Trump says is “very small,” even though it can accommodate about 200.

He closed the joint news media appearance with Mohammed bin Salman by saying he’s probably made a “lot of enemies” because a lot of people weren’t invited to dinner or can’t attend because of the space limitations.

Trump has said the proposed ballroom will hold about 1,000 people.

“This would be a perfect night to have that ballroom open, Susie,” Trump says, addressing White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. “If we had that open, we’d have a lot of people very happy. Right now, we have a lot of unhappy people because they all want to be with us tonight to honor this great man.”

HHS official says bulk of home heating assistance funding to be released soon

In a letter sent Tuesday to state-based agencies that administer the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, a top official said it’s anticipated $3.7 billion will be released by the end of November.

Congress this month appropriated more than $4 billion for LIHEAP, which helps millions of low-income households pay to heat and cool their homes.

Andrew Gradison, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said there’s a recognition state-based agencies need the majority of their funds now to help households during the winter months. Gradison blamed congressional Democrats for the delay in funding.

The 43-day federal government shutdown prompted some states to warn recipients their heating assistance would be postponed, creating uncertainty for families as temperatures were dropping. Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, said states have been accepting LIHEAP applications but can’t issue benefits until their federal allocations are finalized.

“The administration’s advance notice is encouraging, and it’s important that the remaining funds be released by the end of the month so states can provide timely assistance as winter temperatures set in,” he said.

Trump says ABC should have its broadcast license taken away

The president lashed out again at the same reporter who asked another question about releasing files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, criticizing her attitude and the way she asks questions.

He then said that he thinks the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong.” He then referred to Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, who has been a staunch ally and launched investigations into several networks.

Carr also said to ABC before it took comic Jimmy Kimmel off the air following his comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination that “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

Trump, after calling for ABC’s license to be revoked, said Tuesday that Carr “should look at that.”

Federal judges block Texas from using its new US House map in the 2026 midterms

Texas cannot use a new congressional map drawn by Republicans in hopes of securing the party additional U.S. House seats, a panel of three federal judges ruled Tuesday.

The ruling was a blow to Trump’s efforts to have GOP lawmakers in multiple states redraw their maps to help the party preserve its slim House majority in the potentially difficult 2026 midterm elections.

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics. To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map,” the ruling states.

Texas this summer was the first state to meet Trump’s demands in what has become an expanding national battle over redistricting. Republicans drew the state’s new map to give the GOP five additional seats, and Missouri and North Carolina followed with new maps adding an additional Republican seat each. To counter those moves, California voters approved a ballot initiative to give Democrats an additional five seats there.

The 2-1 decision followed a nearly two-week trial in El Paso, Texas.

Trump says he likes Bessent for Fed chair, but Bessent said no

Trump gave a nod toward Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and said that’s who he wants to lead the Federal Reserve, but Bessent has declined his overtures.

“I think I already know my choice,” Trump said. “Well, I liked him. But he’s not going to take the job. He refused. You like Treasury better, right?”

The president said he would like to remove current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May. Powell has not cut the Fed’s benchmark interest rates as aggressively as Trump wants. The president believes inflation has been defeated, even though it’s above the Fed’s 2% target.

Trump said he has “some very good people” who could replace Powell, adding that there are “some surprising names” but he may “go the standard way.”

Bessent said that Trump will be “sitting down with them in the near future.”

Trump criticizes Biden for fist bumping the Saudi prince

Trump said that when you get off of Air Force One in Saudi Arabia and are greeting the country’s future king, “you shake his hand. You don’t get the fist bump.”

Then-President Joe Biden greeted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with an awkward fist bump in 2022 when Biden traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Human rights activists had criticized Biden’s decision to meet the Saudi leader.

But a year later, in 2023, Biden shook hands with the crown prince when they appeared together at an international summit in New Delhi.

Trump said he wouldn’t ask bin Salman how he felt about the fist bump.

Senate Democratic leader presses for quick passage of Epstein files bill

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters that once the House passes a bill to force the Department of Justice to release its case files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he plans “to move on the floor so that the Senate take it up immediately.”

It’s unclear how the Senate will handle the legislation, but there is growing interest among both Democrats and Republicans to pass the bill, especially after President Donald Trump has reversed course and said he will sign it.

“The American people have waited long enough, and they want to see what’s in it,” Schumer added.

Trump dismisses criticism of Crown Prince over 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying ‘Things happen’

The president said the Crown Prince “knew nothing about it” and said of Khashoggi that “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman.”

Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked the question, calling her “fake news” and chastising her saying “you don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking him a question like that.”

Saudi crown prince ups his planned US investments to $1 trillion

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Trump that his country would be increasing its financial commitments to the U.S. from $600 billion to $1 trillion.

“Good, I like that very much,” Trump said.

Prince Mohammed was asked if Saudi Arabia can sustain the investments given the current low level of oil prices, but he indicated that the deals on computer chips fit with his country’s development.

The president has tried to make the case that his mix of tariffs and diplomacy will create $21 trillion in investment commitments before the end of the year.

It’s an improbably high sum and the White House can’t fully explain how the president reached that total.

But Trump is facing pushback from the public on his economic leadership and has promised that the investments will create jobs domestically.

Trump praises Saudi crown prince as they appear before news media

“We have a extremely respected man in the Oval Office today,” Trump said to open the news media spray, calling Mohammed bin Salman “a friend of mine for a very long time.”

Trump also praised the prince’s father.

The president is still speaking about how great he thinks the U.S. is performing under his leadership.

Trump shows Saudi crown prince his White House decorations

The president and Prince Mohammed walked slowly on the White House Colonnade, where Trump has hung portraits of all the presidents except one — Biden — in gold frames, with gold ornamentations above them and large gold letters on the wall that say in a curly script: “The Presidential Walk of Fame.”

Trump and the crown prince walked slowly, pausing for several minutes at the portraits of former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In place of Biden’s portrait, Trump has hung a picture of an autopen signing the former president’s name. Trump showed it off to Prince Mohammed before they went to enter the Oval Office together.

Congresswoman urges constituents affected by North Carolina enforcement to call her for help

Rep. Valerie Foushee, a Democrat whose district includes part of Raleigh and its suburbs, said the expanded deployment of federal immigration agents “is a profound abuse of power, a violation of civil rights, and a stain on our democracy.”

“Our cities are not border cities, and our state is not a war zone,” Foushee said in a news release. “Yet, the Trump Administration has chosen to initiate policies designed to instill fear, undermine due process, and disproportionately target Black, Brown, and immigrant residents.”

Saudi crown prince arrives at White House to meet Trump

Trump greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House’s South Lawn entrance.

Trump welcomed the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia with a handshake and arm slung over Prince Mohammed’s shoulder.

A military band was also on hand for Prince Mohammed and there was a flyover.

Former President Joe Biden famously greeted Prince Mohammed with a fist bump during his 2022 visit to Saudi Arabia.

This is Prince Mohammed’s first White House visit since the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.

Democratic congresswoman questions dropped charges on Trump donors and allies

Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania wrote Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting all information about whether companies and industries that donated to the Trump administration have brokered deals to avoid prosecution by the administration.

“When corporations break the law and exploit the American people, they must be held to account,” the letter reads. “It is your duty as attorney general to uphold the laws of this country, regardless of who committed the wrongdoing and how much support they have given to the Trump administration.”

The Justice Department and White House have dismissed allegations of corruption.

Lee questioned the Justice Department’s decision not to criminally prosecute Boeing, an aerospace firm that donated to Trump’s inauguration, after a decision by the administration earlier this month to not prosecute fatal crashes by the firm’s planes. She also contended that cryptocurrency and defense firms may have “conflicts of interest with President Trump” that are preventing them from being investigated or prosecuted.

Speaker Mike Johnson expects unanimous House vote to release Epstein files

But the Republican speaker denounced what he called a politically-motivated “show vote” to release the files of the convicted sex offender as an attack on Trump.

Trump has “nothing to hide” in the investigation over the late financier’s alleged sexual trafficking.

Johnson argued during a private morning meeting of House Republicans and at his weekly press conference at the Capitol that release of the Epstein files could put victims unnecessarily in the limelight. He hopes it can be amended in the Senate.

Nevertheless Johnson said he expects a unanimous vote in the House this afternoon, sending the legislation that would force the release of the files to the Senate.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says Trump’s handling of Epstein files has ‘ripped MAGA apart’

Greene, once a close ally of Trump’s who has sparred increasingly with him recently, made the comments at a press conference Tuesday ahead of a House vote to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein. She was among the few Republicans to sign on to a discharge petition to force the Epstein vote, and she squarely blamed Trump for allowing the issue to divide the party’s base.

“This has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA,” said Greene. “Watching the man that we supported early on. Three elections. … watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart.”

Asians in North Carolina urged to carry their papers

Worries about immigration enforcement in Raleigh, North Carolina, have spread among South Asians who were drawn to the Research Triangle Park region by high-tech jobs.

Satish Garimella is mayor pro tempore in Morrisville, just west of Raleigh, where Asians represent nearly half the of the town’s population of more than 30,000. He grew up in India but is now a U.S. citizen.

Garimella said the expected arrival of immigration agents is “creating a lot of panic in the community” that immigrants lawfully in the country could be swept up. He’s recommending that they carry with them IDs, copies of passports and other documents affirming their legal status.

“You just don’t know when you will be questioned and what things are needed,” said Garimella, a product manager for a pharmaceutical company. “Even a person who is a citizen is not immune.”

Survivors urge lawmakers to force the release of the Epstein files

Women speaking out at the U.S. Capitol are holding pictures of themselves as the children they were when they met the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender.

The photos are meant to show lawmakers that “this is who you are fighting for,” Haley Robson said, and she denounced any political retribution against the lawmakers who led this effort.

“I can say firsthand, stepping out against Epstein and his crimes against children, we have all experienced that ourselves,” Robson said. “So for you to knowingly put yourselves at risk and put your career at risk is unbelievable to watch. And we are so grateful.”

Wendy Avis, 14 when she met Epstein, said “none of us here signed up for this political warfare.”

“Stop making survivors fight alone for the truth that should have protected us in the first place,” Avis said.